Week Nine: Discipling Nations

"This city is tired of praying for peace..."

It is a weary thing to pray for a place and see healing and have the work ruined by individuals who's plan is not at all peace, but we do not stop praying.

This past week we discussed reconciliation. The best idea I have heard about peace between people is this, not that there is not fighting or that there is no interaction but that literally everything is moving and turning together and made of a million different pieces and working properly. Picture the difference between a car turned off and a car flying down the highway 80mph and all you hear is the hum an engine and the road beneath you. That is peace.

What we are doing as a team is bringing peace to this nation. We are a small group of individuals, working together in peace, we all have different task but on goal. We as individuals work with God to maintain our own peace (everything working together), then as peaceful people we work with other Christians (peaceful people, working together) and then we encourage others around us to join the peace as a fully functioning part. It's how the Body of Christ works, and when everything is working together well, people are happy to join in and the body grows! That is how we, as a Church, are disciplining the nations.

God has called us to something bigger than our own salvation. While it is important it is simply a small part of the big picture...it's only the beginning. How many of us can't wait for the end so heaven can come and we'll be happy. Yeah. Me too. But it's a sad state of mind...because if your not happy here, you won't be very happy in heaven because my friends, Jesus has already brought heaven here...it's at hand. It is within reach. Every time you dream of walking down streets of gold...go for a walk around your neighborhood, because Christ is already there, he is redeeming it. When you dream of a mansion on a hill, invite someone to your small house for dinner to show him how it'll be when you have one, He is redeeimg your life.

One last thing. Some of us, including me, struggle with not being in full-time ministry because it doesn't "feel" like we're serving the Lord. There are many facets of this world though that you already serve Him and he needs you there. The Arts. Science. Education. Communication. Government. Economics. The Church. In order to disciple a nation we need to be involved in ALL of the Nation. If there were individuals willing to serve in the places God has called them, there can be great leaps in the way our world works. I feel called to Ireland, so I'll give it my best while I am here. Many people are quite content with their jobs and need to remember that God is there with them, no matter how insignificant it seems.

The plan of God is big. It is greater than anyone of us and spans colors, races denominations, seas oceans and countries; it is not above them, it includes all of them. What if God's plan did not involve destruction but redemption? What if the fire that destroys this world is his love? What if heaven is just below the surface and we need only to reach out and take it? The Church will disciple the Nations.

Cheers Friends.
Maeder